Maybe this time. Maybe.
Cory Johnston was seven minutes from winning AOY in 2019, his first year on the Elites, and he’s been close several times since. This year he stands second with a great shot to win the 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year title.
“That would be awesome,” he said. “I’ve been close to the AOY multiple times and haven’t been able to pull the trigger on it yet, so let’s hope this is the year. I’m getting old, Sooch.”
The 41-year-old from Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, has finished in the top 10 in points in four of his seven Elite seasons, and he’s already assured of qualifying for his eighth consecutive Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour, tying several others for the longest active streak.
The past two seasons, Cory Johnston has watched his kid brother, Chris, win back-to-back AOYs by edging Trey McKinney. With two events remaining, McKinney leads the race with 554 points. Cory Johnston is second, and he said he needs a fantastic finish to make up his 16-point deficit.
“I don’t know, probably two top fives to get it done, I would think,” he said.
Against most all the field, Cory Johnston would be considered the favorite as the series returns to his backyard for the SPRO Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champion and the Lowrance Elite at St. Lawrence River. But he knows McKinney has put in the work.
“Trey’s gonna catch them,” he said. “He’s been up at Champlain for weeks and weeks, and then he was at St. Lawrence for weeks and weeks, so he’s going to catch him. I think I need two top fives to get it done.”
The AOY lead has seesawed between the two, who have topped the standings after five of the seven tournaments. Cory Johnston was first after a 13th at Guntersville and 11th at Lake Martin, but only five points up on McKinney.
With his third Top 10 on the year, McKinney left the Arkansas River one point ahead of Cory Johnston. A fifth-place finish at Lake Murray created McKinney’s 66-point cushion on Cory Johnston, who took 70th there.
McKinney was 42 points up on second-place Caleb Hudson and seemingly rolling to the title denied him in his first two seasons. He led much of his Bassmaster Rookie of the Year season in 2024 before a disqualification thwarted his shot. Last year, McKinney started with a bomb at the St. Johns then climbed to first heading into the final event, where Chris Johnston out dueled him.
This year, McKinney suffered a glitch at Santee Cooper Lakes, which allowed the field to catch up. After Cory Johnston, Drew Cook is third, 17 points back, and Cole Sands trails by 19.
“Trey had a bad one, but I also had a bad one,” Cory Johnston said. “It’s so hard to win Angler of the Year because you can’t have a bad tournament. Unfortunately for me, and for Trey, each of us had a bad one this year. A really bad one.”
Cory Johnston’s fourth-place finish combined with McKinney’s 90th-place hiccup at Santee Cooper created an 86-point swing, and Cory Johnston went up by 20 points.
At the Pasquotank, McKinney regained the lead as he climbed each day to end 11th. Cory Johnston got inside the 50 cut on Day 2 but left some points with only one fish on Semifinal Saturday to take 47th.
“If Trey or myself had a finish 30 spots better, then one of us might be blowing it away,” Cory Johnston said. “That’s what Angler of the Year is all about; it’s being consistent all year. We got two left, so we’ll see what happens.”
The race resumes Aug. 13-16 at Champlain, where Cory Johnston has two Top 10s in four B.A.S.S. events. He was fifth in 2024 and ninth in 2020, with a 14th in 2023 and a worst of 42nd in 2021.
“I was sucking in one of them,” he said. “I kept losing them and breaking them off.”
McKinney’s only Bassmaster entry at Champlain was a 42nd in the 2024 Elite.
“Well, I hope he has another 42nd,” said Cory Johnston, who earlier this year reported he would need to relearn the fishery. “I did. I drove around for a couple days, took a little poke around, seeing what I needed to see and headed her back home.”
The wild-card aspect will be the anglers are not allowed to use forward-facing sonar at Champlain.
“I definitely like Champlain as a no-scope event,” Cory Johnston said. “That kind of fits my wheelhouse, how I like to fish.
“Back in the day when Chris and I used to do very well on Champlain, scoping wasn’t even a thing. So, we get to kind of go back to our roots and fish how we used to fish it. A ton has changed, but I’m still looking forward to this event.”
The Johnstons have owned the St. Lawrence, their home waters as both live on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. It’s been said they’ve named the big smallmouth hanging around the lake’s boulders.
Chris Johnston became the first Canadian Elite winner there in 2021, and in six derbies he has twice been runner-up and never finished below sixth. His record-tying Day 3 in 2024, with 29-5, rallied him past McKinney and others to his first AOY.
In his eight events on the St. Lawrence, Cory Johnston has three victories, the 2024 Elite and 2021 and 2025 Opens, and only has one finish outside the Top 10. However, it was the most painful. It cost him the 2019 AOY.
On Day 1, he caught 22 pounds, 5 ounces, but after a blown engine, borrowed boat and the graphs not set to daylight savings time, Cory Johnston was seven minutes late to check-in. Instead of seventh, the 7-pound penalty had him in 60th. He added 21-7 on Day 2, but was 2 ounces out of the cut in 36th. He finished the season third in AOY, eight points behind the winner.
Cory Johnston again finished third in AOY in 2024, 25 points behind his brother and one back of runner-up McKinney. He was fifth in 2021, 10th last year and his lowest was 26th.
Climbing past McKinney would give the Carbondale, Ill., angler another heartbreak, but it would make the Johnstons the first family members with AOYs.
“That’d be cool,” said Cory Johnston, who hasn’t heard much about it from his brother. “No, not really. He just said I better not screw it up.”
That’s love.
No matter how it shakes out, Cory Johnston said he has respect for McKinney, one of the young phenoms making their mark in the bass fishing world of late.
“For sure, he works hard.” Cory Johnston said. “He puts more time in than anybody else and that’s what it takes. He’s 21 years old and doesn’t have kids.
“When you get to be my old age of 41, you got family, you got kids and those things take priority. I’m not going to pre-practice for any of the tournaments down south. He puts his time in. He works hard, and he’s a heck of a fisherman.”
The advantage of his home fishery also might have evaporated, Cory Johnston said. McKinney was 88th in his first tournament there in 2023 but was third the next year behind Cory Johnston’s winning 102-0 and Robert Gee’s 100-7.
“He’s definitely learned it,” Cory Johnston said. “Trey has spent a ton of time up at the St. Lawrence. He maybe even knows it better than I do by now. So, he’ll be a handful.”
A handful of points should decide the 2026 AOY, and with young gun Kid McKinney ahead of him, Cory Johnston realizes his quest is doable, but is still just a maybe.
